Local organization reacts to lethal injection ruling

COLUMBIA - On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the decision to allow the use of lethal injection drugs in capital cases.

The 5-4 decision came from a case in Oklahoma that questioned the use of the lethal agent Midazolan.

The drug came under fire during the case because it was said to be ineffective in placing inmates in a "coma-like" state prior to killing them.

This raised questions about whether use of this drug qualified as cruel and unusual punishment.

Regardless of the Supreme Court decision, some human rights activists said they will never support the execution of inmates.

"The issue of whether Midazalon is a good sedative, or a good medicine, or drug that can induce a deep, deep coma, that's really a secondary issue," Jeff Stack said.

Stack is the coordinator of the Mid-Mo Fellowship of Reconciliation. It is an organization dedicated to the abolition of the death penalty.

"No matter how you present it, you're still talking about cruel and unusual punishment from our perspective...it's racist, classist, it's an abomination to civilization. It's long past time for Missouri to get out of the business of being an agent for death."

Missouri is the fifth leading state in executions with 84 as of 2015.

KOMU 8 News reached out to the Missouri Department of Corrections and the Missouri Attorney General's Office for comment, but they declined to speak with us about the issue.